Category Archives: Cooking

Foods Eaten in Nigeria and how to make fried rice.

There are lots of foods eaten in Nigeria and I want to list the few popular ones and then a detailed guide on how to make fried rice – one of my favorites.

Are you married to a Nigerian man and finds yourself in a tight corner when it comes to making foods for him or worried about his appetite or yearning for home made foods, do you find it confusing that Nigerians in Diaspora often feel excited when they find Nigeria foods? The reason is simple; we used to say that – there is no place like home or home made food.

Most foods eaten in Nigerian are easy and often straight forward to make. The most popular food in Nigeria is Eba popularly called (garri). Eba goes with any of the many Nigerian soups and could be substituted with fufu, semo, amarla or wheat meal.

Eba and fufu are by-products of cassava, while fufu is made by fermenting cassava for 3 to 4 day and sieving out the chaff, eba is often simpler in making. Eba which is also called (garri) is made by peeling off the back of cassava, then grounding and frying on a dry hot pot.

There are lots of soups eaten in Nigerian that can go with eba, fufu, or semo. The most popular Nigerian soup is the egusi soup (melon) it is often very easy to prepare or at least very easy for me to prepare. Egusi soup can also be eaten with white rice.

That’s just about few of the Nigerian popular foods I just want to focus specifically on how to cook fried rice – The most popular Nigerian recipe. Fried rice takes about one to two hour to prepare and the real work is the preparation of things used in making fried rice instead of the actual cooking.

Ingredients include:

3 cups of rice
1 to 2 table spoon-full of curry powder
2 ball of onions
Medium sized cabbage
2 to 3 medium sized carrot
11/2 cups of chopped green beans
About 1/5 kg of liver
Meat of choice (beef, turkey, chicken) most people prefer chicken in Nigeria
2 to 3 cubes of maggi
green peas (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste.

The preparation:
Parboil the meat with meat ingredients (curry/thyme powder, 1 maggi cube, 1 ball of onions and salt) for about 10 to 15 minutes. It is often necessary to parboil this meat with these ingredients just to end up with a tasteful meat.

Add more water to the meat and cook until it is soft for consumption. then pick out from the water and deep-fry in groundnut/vegetable oil (leaving out the meat water on the pot)

Chop the carrot, cabbage, green beans, green pepper, and liver then set aside on different bowls.

Then parboil the 3 cups of rice and cook white till it is about 75% done.

How To Make Fried Rice:

Like I stated initially that the cooking of fried rice in Nigeria is quite simple, the most tedious aspect is the preparation of things used in cooking it.

Set your cooking pot on fire, allow drying before adding groundnut/vegetable oil (the one used in frying the meat would do) use about 15 to 20 cl of oil, allow to heat then add the chopped carrot and green beans.

Fry for two to three minutes and add the peas (optional), add the curry powder to get a very yellowish mixture. (the curry powder actually give Nigerian fried rice its yellowish color.

Add the chopped cabbage, stir and add the liver and green pepper. Pour in the left over water from the parboiled meat, add maggi/salt and pepper to taste, make them a bit in excess because the rice will absorb most of the ingredients.

At this point you are almost done. Add the white rice, stir/turn very well, cover your pot and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with the fried meat and soft drink of choice.
This is how to make Nigerian fried rice; I told you it is easy.

Cooking Appliances and Most Essential Handling Outdoor Appliances

On today market there are so many different types of cooking appliances available. There are the more traditional range cookers, hobs, built in ovens, double ovens, cooker hoods and the most recent advance in cooking technology- the microwave.

Range cookers are freestanding cooking appliances, but more and more, people are having their cooking appliances integrated into their design and built in ovens and hobs that are built in to the existing counter look sleek and match easily with the rest of your cooking space, helping you to keep everything coordinated.

The three main choices that you have when choosing a new hob are gas, ceramic and induction, but Domino hobs have been introduced to the cooking appliances market recently as well. Domino hobs allow you to combine different types of hobs into one.

The cooker (or extractor) hood, like many other modern cooking appliances, comes in a range of different styles, the main ones being canopy hoods, chimney hoods, island chimney hoods and integrated hoods. The cooker hood does this by replacing them with fresh air particles.

Most Essential Handling Outdoor Cooking Appliances

Outdoor cooking appliances are simply the most extraordinary inventions that have ever seen the light of the day. Cooking is made an enjoyable and effortless activity thanks to these appliances.

Amongst the outdoor cooking appliances available, the most preferred are Dutch ovens, griddles made from cast iron and cooking grills.

1.Griddles : Griddles made from cast iron present stovetops with greater flexibility.

2.Fry Thermometers : Fry thermometers, which apart from being a safety measure, enable you to check that the meat is cooked at the right temperature and is not over- or under done

3.Jambalaya Pots : A different kind of outdoor cooking appliance is the Jambalaya Pots, which are made of cast iron of approx. 3-10 gallons, and are multifunctional.

4.Cooking Paddle : which comes in both wood and steel and, largely makes cooking very uncomplicated and easy.

5.Fish Fry Basket : A further kind of outdoor cooking appliance, which is often used, is the fish fry basket, which can be put in the deep fryer.

6.Deep Fryer Kit : The deep fryer kit is a very popular outdoor cooking appliance and comprises of large and deep fryer pots with a thermometer and a burner included.

7.Grill Accessories : Grill Accessories can be placed in the storage shelf or rack of the grill. Hence, seasoning food becomes quite easy s all the ingredients are kept close at hand.

You need not invest a lot of time or effort to prepare dishes using the outdoor Cooking Appliances, as they tend to reduce considerably the cooking time.

Delicious Pizza Sauce Ideas

A delicious sauce is what makes the distinction between a mouth watering pizza and an ordinary pie. Even though sauce is commonly blanketed other ingredients prior to being baked, the quality and essence within the sauce will still be noticed. Pizza sauces make up the foundation for your cheese and toppings. The conventional tomato-based pizza sauce continues to rank as the most favored selection and is adaptable enough to work nicely with most toppings from cheeses, various meats and vegetables. By starting off from nothing or by improving a store bought pizza sauce product, crafting a homemade pizza sauce is an easy activity.

Pizza Sauce from the Start

Tomatoes that are fresh, particularly if fully ripe, add unique flavor to the sauce but may not be practical for the normal cook. Fresh tomatoes can be very watery and need a good deal of cooking time to breakdown. Typically rendering more consistent results, a top quality processed tomato product can perform equally as well. Fresh garlic and chopped onion are lightly browned in cooking oil and then combined with the basil, oregano, salt, and diced tomatoes. Before your sauce can be distributed over the top of your prepared pizza dough it needs to cook for approximately 30 minutes and then be blended until smooth in a blender.

Making Your Pizza Sauce Unique

A nice replacement for a homemade sauce are the countless styles of pasta and pizza sauce that can be purchased at the store. Refrigerated sauces provide a variety of interesting flavors and can be used as a foundation for a custom sauce. These prepared sauces offer a good platform for adding a few new ingredients such as minced garlic, crushed red pepper, basil and oregano. The sauce needs to be warmed up with the further ingredients for a little while in order to meld the flavors. These packaged products can be altered for flavor or substituted for when necessary.

Non-Traditional Sauces

Employing a non-tomato centered sauce such as pesto or Alfredo has become a new trend in contemporary pizzas. Pesto mixtures are prepared from minced basil, extra virgin olive oil, minced garlic and pine nuts and can be put together from scratch or purchased as a refrigerated, fresh variety or jarred product. The creamy Alfredo sauce works well with toppings such as mushrooms, Italian sausage, or grilled chicken and provides an enjoyable and lush pizza. Traditionally enhanced with herbs such as thyme, rosemary or oregano, Romano cheese and garlic, Alfredo sauce has a cream or milk, butter and flour foundation.

Cooking For Sunday Dinner

From as far back as i can remember there were special church occasions when dinner on the church grounds was the order for the day.

far too many times I noted as person after person walked in with store acquired fried chicken. Whether the explanation for this was shortage of time, lack of planning, or absence of ideas I was not certain. It may appear bizarre but I have traveled all across the country and lived in a couple of different areas of the culture.

One thing that appears steady irrespective of where I live is that somebody unavoidably brings fried chicken from a local restaurant or deli as their potluck offering. Sun. Dinners obviously aren’t the one time when cooking a stew or making a pudding is a good call for the day. They’re however the most common from my youth, explaining why I continually refer to them.

There also are ‘pitch ins’ at work that need a contribution and these are a brilliant chance to make colleagues envy your culinary gifts. Even for the ones that are health aware but there are countless fantastic kinds of salads that could be prepared for occasions like this that may provide you with a guilt free entre at the event for which you are preparing your offering. You do not have to choose calorie or fat filled dishes for your Sun. Dinner cooking. Actually when you’re doing the cooking you should cook the things you like eating.

Many people are loads more bound to put our best efforts into preparing the foods we enjoy rather than the ones that feel as if they seem to be a chore for us to make. Just watch out that you don’t prepare the same dish everytime or folks will think it’s the sole dish you can prepare.

Even mags that offer fitter eating options constantly have a stew, enormous salad, or perhaps a good pudding you can prepare for these events.

My private solution has traditionally been to assemble recipes over time that I just wish to try out and use the potluck audience as my recipe guinea pigs. This way if my folks or I don’t like it, we can’t be stuck with remains for one week and if we do like it, we are able to put it into our revolution of recipes to be used at home. Sunday dinner cooking does not have to be virtually as scary as many of us make it out to be. Just load your slow cooker with the correct ingredients and turn it on before turning in. You must awaken to the amazing odour of whatever nice dish you have prepared and still come up with a method to stand by for church in record time.

This proven strategy is a brilliant way to make Sun. Dinner cooking fast and easy. Even if you are one of the countless who’ve intensely limited culinary abilities it is sort of feasible to wow your buddies, kin, and fellow church members with the right ‘simple to make’ recipe. Puddings are definitely the simplest way to go in this effort and may also be made the evening before ( in countless cases ) and stored in the chiller. Puddings are virtually generally a solid bet and just a couple of folk ever moan about them in any case. The Kraft foods web site offers some fabulously easy to make and tasty puddings if you’re in need. Next time it’s your turn to take part on the potluck preparation don’t resort to fried chicken. Dish up something which should actually turn heads instead.

Cooking With Fresh Herbs

Herbs are fun and easy to grow. When harvested they make even the simplest meal seem like a gourmet delight. By using herbs in your cooking you can easily change the flavors of your recipes in many different ways, according to which herbs you add. Fresh herbs are great in breads, stews, soups or vegetables. Every time you add a different herb you have completely changed the taste.

If you are a beginner start slowly, add just a little at a time adjusting as you go along until you have it just right. You will see in most instances that an individual herb is associated with a particular food item. Basil is paired with tomatoes, Oregano with sauces, Rosemary with lamb and Chives with butter or cream cheese. Of course, none of them are limited to these items, but you will see them paired most often with that particular food. Use your imagination and experiment, experiment, experiment!

You can make herb vinegars for salad dressings, marinades, or soups. Herb oils are very useful in cooking whenever a recipe calls for it.

Fresh herbs as garnishes dress up any dish making it look truly spectacular. Lay individual sprigs of rosemary over broiled lamb chops. Chop fresh parsley and sprinkle it over the top of your potato salad. The combinations are endless and the outcome delicious.

Fresh herbs will keep in the refrigerator for several days but then you must freeze them. They can be frozen by laying them a paper towel and putting them in a plastic bag. Once they are frozen only use them in cooking not as garnishes. A friend of mine washes them, puts them an ice cube tray, covers them with water and then freezes them. When she needs them for soup, stews or sauces she just drops a cube in.

My favorite herbs to grow are basil, oregano, lemon balm, parsley and mint. Mint is great but is careful; mint can over run your garden. A tip here would be to bury an empty coffee can and plant the mint in it. The can prevents the mint from “creeping” all through your garden.

I love to make herb butters. Take a half of a cup of softened butter and mix in about 4 tablespoons of a fresh herb. Lay out a piece of saran wrap, place the butter in the middle roll the saran wrap up to form a “log” out of the butter. Put in the refrigerator and anytime you need a pat of butter just cut it off the “log”. (Hints for “log” butter: potatoes, bread, steaks, noodles or any kind of sauce).

A fresh herb in any salad dressing really makes it sparkle. You can use any herb or a combination, be creative.

I learned a trick a long time ago using basil, lemon and avocados to create and instant natural face mask. Put a big handful of basil in a blender and run it on high. Once the basil has been pulverized, throw in a half of an avocado and a large teaspoon of lemon juice, mix until smooth. Wash your face, pat it dry and gently rub the avocado mixture on. Leave it on as long as you like, then use warm water to it wash off.

These are just a few ways you can use fresh herbs from your garden. I am sure you will come up with many more. Happy cooking